Bangor To Look Into Possibly Expanding Its Public Transit System

The city of Bangor has voted to hire and outside consulting company to look into possibly expanding its service around town. There are lots of ideas and questions that the city is looking to gather some answers about in the coming months. they will review the results in a report given to them in the second half of the year from a company called Stantec, according to an article in the Bangor Daily News.

There is a lot of discussion about folks who would love to see the Community Connector's hours expand. There are many people in the Bangor area, who don't work hours that necessarily fit into the schedule that's currently available to them. Such as workers in retail, hospitality, and healthcare industries.

Over the next several months, Stantec will collect data to make some recommendations about staffing, fares, hours of operation and how it stops for riders. for instance, right now, if you want to catch a bus, you just flag it down. One of the things being considered is more defined stops.

It's also assumed that towns who also utilize the service may want to have some say as to how it all shakes out. for instance, Hampden has considered opting out of the service with the feeling the ridership may not be worth the cost. These are the sort of issues being raised in this process.

The review will set the city back about $100,000, but it's not a huge bite out of their $3 million budget. At any rate, it sounds like the city of Bangor is listening to what the people want, and hope fully can reach a solid agreement that works for everyone.